How Vera Bradley Rode Nostalgia to a Comeback

Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world.

When you think of turn-of-the-millenium trends that have had a resurgence, you might immediately alight on low-rise jeans or Uggs. But the colorful, paisley-centric, preppy staple that is the Vera Bradley bag has been swept up in Y2K fever, too, and it’s reaching a whole new generation—to the puzzlement of some millennials—with its patterned pieces becoming unexpected grails on secondhand sites like Depop.

The brand sits at the intersection of aughts nostalgia and the current prep wave of boat shoes and barn jackets, with detours into cottagecore and coastal grandmother territory. There may be an element of coquettecore at play, too. Casey Lewis, who writes the After School newsletter on Substack and examines youth trends for a living, notes that “what’s interesting about Vera Bradley is that it is both preppy, in the classic sense of the word, but also in the Gen Alpha sense, which means super girly—lots of pink and ribbons and bows.”

All of these converging factors led to a rebrand this summer, following 18 months of self-evaluation on the part of the company. Alison Hiatt, the label’s Chief Marketing Officer, admits that prior to that point, Vera Bradley “was not nearly as relevant to today’s consumers. It had been very niche and served a pretty small group.” Since the rebrand, the company has collaborated with Urban Outfitters on collections inspired by archival house patterns, created cheery pink and green fare for the release of Wicked, and brought on Zooey Deschanel as a brand ambassador. While Deschanel is squarely Gen X, “she’s one of those people you feel like you can just have a glass of wine with,” says Hiatt. “She’s not trendy. She’s not popping from one look to another. And ultimately, she’s about joy and just having fun.”

Zooey Deschanel in a campaign for the brand.

Vera Bradley launched in 1982, after co-founders Patricia R. Miller and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard were at the airport and noticed how drab all the luggage options on display were. Like Lilly Pulitzer’s orange juice spill or Norma Kamali fashioning a makeshift sleeping bag coat on a camping trip, it was one of those fabled fashion eureka moments. Before long, the duo’s paisley weekenders and totes were popping up at airport gates and on commuter trains all over the country.

Left and right: looks from the Vera Bradley collaboration with Urban Outfitters.

When Hiatt jumps on Zoom with me to talk about the brand’s comeback, patterns are literally at the forefront, comprising her virtual background; she says company calls often resemble a patchwork of vibrant prints. At their headquarters, she tells me, “We have a wall with every single pattern that was ever produced, and people have this emotional connection to what was their pattern, or their best friend’s, or their mom’s, or their grandma’s.”

The emotional (and familial) connection is certainly one part of the appeal. Changing mores around office dressing could be another. For the generation that’s entering the adult workforce, a staid solid carryall, the much-vaunted “investment piece,” no longer holds the same cachet it once did. “When I started my career, there was a very structured bag that you had to have,” Hiatt says. “Now it’s a little more organic. [We’re] in the anti-trend, make- your-own-look era.” Not only is the embrace of personal style peaking—the accessible price point is also a draw. For young women on a budget, a Vera bag can “help them change their look more dramatically without having to invest in new pieces,” she adds.

Items from the Wicked collaboration.

The revival isn’t limited to 20-somethings, either. Lewis, who scours TikTok trends and hauls as part of her research, found that the resurgence began “with cool Gen Zers on TikTok.” But, she says, nostalgia has driven a new group to the label: “When their content lauding the brand began going viral and thus reaching millennials, 30- and 40-somethings were inspired to dig their stuff up and wear it again.” Hiatt says she and her team take social media into account when it comes to their launches. “We’ve done a lot of social listening and talking to a lot of influencers,” she says, “whether we’re working with them or not—just to understand what people like about it.”

Deschanel’s campaign channels her trademark twee style.

And with brightness, prints, and optimism all over the most recent Fashion Month, it’s never been a better time to be in the more-is-more business. “Tons of color and maximalism, broadly, began infiltrating my For You Page even before it hit the runways, so this is going to be huge for the next six months at least,” Lewis predicts. “I think you could make the case that part of the reason is that the world feels fraught and politics are depressing, so we’re distracting ourselves with bright colors and mixed prints—but I’m not a socialist.”

Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s Fashion Features Director and the author of the book Dress Code, which was selected as one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year. Her writing has previously appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W, New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Condé Nast Traveler.